20210327 At The Final Horn at BOS Ullmark 01

Linus Ullmark and Kyle Okposo returned to the Buffalo Sabres' lineup Saturday afternoon and made a positive impact, but the Boston Bruins scored twice in the third period to win 3-2 at TD Garden.
Craig Smith scored with 3:50 left in regulation as the Bruins handed the Sabres their 17th-straight loss.
Ullmark, making his first start in net since a lower-body injury on February 25 sidelined him for 15 games, was stellar between the pipes and stopped 33 shots.
Okposo and Sam Reinhart scored for Buffalo. Okposo had missed the past three games with an upper-body injury and has now scored in back-to-back games.
Matt Grzelcyk and Nick Ritchie also scored for Boston. Dan Vladar made 25 saves.
The Sabres are 0-15-2 over their last 17 games. Their last win came on February 23.
Buffalo scored its first power-play goal in 16 games, snapping an 0-for-28 slump. The team finished 1-for-3 with the man advantage and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.

What happened

The Sabres took advantage of an early power play to open the scoring. Sabres score on the power play. On a dump in, Vladar went behind the net to play the puck, but gave puck right to Reinhart, who cut in from behind the goal line to tuck a backhand into the empty net 2:01 into the game.
The goal snapped a nine-game goalless streak for Reinhart.
The Bruins tied the game with 8:19 left on a delayed penalty. With Vladar pulled in favor of the extra attacker, Grzelcyk carried the puck into the middle of the ice at the point and shot the puck through traffic to beat Ullmark.
Buffalo quickly regained the lead thanks to Okposo, who knocked in a loose puck with 5:48 to play in the second.
At the 5:22 mark of the third period, Boston evened the score. Charlie McAvoy circled the Sabres and eventually threw the puck out in front, where it bounced off defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen's skate and right to Ritchie, who put it in.
Smith pounced on a loose puck late in the third period for what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
Buffalo was outshot 15-3 in the final 20 minutes of play.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Reinhart's team-leading 12 th goal of the season:

BUF@BOS: Reinhart capitalizes on miscue for PPG

Worth mentioning

The Sabres recalled forward Jean-Sebastien Dea from the taxi squad prior to the game. Dea recorded two shots in 5:33 of action. He skated one shift in the third period.
Forward C.J. Smith and goaltender Michael Houser have been loaned to the taxi squad.

Coming up

The Sabres will host the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday at 7 p.m. at KeyBank Center. The game opens up a four-game homestand, which concludes on Saturday against the New York Rangers. The team will welcome fans for the game on April 3. Get all the details here.